Personal Entertainment Tachylite
by little.tel
Summary: Life after the end of Slayers. Simon's got a dysfunctional family and he's always known it, but he never expected this. Throw in Kable's problems and life can take quite a twist. Hopefully in the end it'll be a good one.


**P.E.T – Personal Entertainment Tachylite**

**Chapter 1**

Simon groaned as he slowly woke to an incessant beeping noise filling every room of his apartment. At seventeen years old, Simon was quite famous even after the abrupt end of Slayers. He was around five foot eight, had jet-black hair, pale skin, handsomely defined features, and deep blue eyes. Like most teenagers, Simon was laid back, easy going, and generally pretty pleased with life. However, considering the day and time – the beeping was extremely unwelcome and put the teen in a rather cross frame of mind.

"What the hell," he muttered as he pushed the covers off of him and sat up. Groaning, he rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake up a bit more. Standing with a yawn, Simon climbed out of bed to see who the idiot trying to contact him was. Dressed in loose gray pajama pants and a blue t-shirt, he slowly made his way through the apartment and towards his terminal room.

Walking through the electronic wall picturing pink jellyfish swimming in an endless blue, the incessant beeping that had filled the apartment died and left a blinking message sign on the majority of the screen walls. Letting out another yawn, Simon let himself flop over onto the springy orange floor. Laying spread out on his back he opened the call that was trying to get through.

The newly opened window was as tall as Simon was and contained the face of a primly dressed businessman in his late forties. The man was decidedly handsome, with neatly styled dark brown hair, defined facial features, and piercing grey eyes.

"Good morning Simon," said the man who's face had appeared.

The sight of the man pushed all the lingering fog of sleep away from Simon's mind. Completely awake, Simon sat up as his eyes narrowed. "Dad. What do you want?"

The man smiled tentatively. "I can't check in on the well being of my son occasionally?"

Simon simply glared. "It's six in the morning on a Saturday. What do you want?"

Sighing dejectedly the man rubbed at his face before focusing on Simon again. "For what it's worth I apologize. I know I'm not a good father, I'm trying to make up for it." Seeing Simon's eyes narrow even more the man pressed on resolutely. "In further apology I wanted to give you your birthday present."

Raising one eyebrow, Simon's head tilted to the side. "My birthday's not for another month."

"I know, I know," said the man quickly. "I have a meeting in Bangkok that week, so I figured I'd give it to you early rather than late."

Deciding to hear his father out, Simon dropped his glare and instead took on a bored look. "All right, what is it?"

Obviously relieved the man continued quickly. "I'm sure you've seen the advertisements for the P.E.T. series that K-Castle is coming out with next year."

Simon nodded; he'd seen the ad while he'd been browsing for a new game to play. It had looked interesting, what with the numerous girls in skimpy outfits and all. From what he could tell the ad was for an artificially created human. They ad had actually explained that they were legal because they were not in fact humans. K-Castle scientists had apparently messed around with the genetic coding to give all of the produced humanoids features of other species and a natural disposition to be servile. They could be used as anything their owner wanted, from a servant to a companion.

Seeing Simon knew what he was talking about, the man continued, "Well I thought you might like one. Since you live alone I figured a pet would be perfect, especially one that can essentially take care of itself."

"Dad, they don't come out for another year."

"I know," said the man. "I talked directly to the K-Castle executives. In compensation for the trouble that they gave you when Kable left the Slayers game, they've offered to let you choose any of the PETs that they have completed at this time. They've been ready for sale for almost three years already. You can get one as soon as tomorrow instead of next year if you want."

Simon sprawled out on his side with his head propped up on his arm as he listened to his father. "You've already paid for it?"

The man shook his head. "No, I told my account manager to look for a transaction to K-Castle sometime this month. I thought you'd like to pick out your PET yourself." He paused a moment before continuing. "I have been informed that you will need an adult to accompany you though. I'd go myself but my schedule's full of meeting this month."

Simon snorted and rolled his eyes. "Always an excuse."

"Simon, I'm sorry. I really can't take any time out of my schedule."

"I bet you've got time to visit your secretary." Simon's eyes were once again narrowed in a glare. The man opened his mouth to say something but Simon cut him off. "It doesn't matter. I'll find someone else to go with me."

"Simon," sighed the man. "I'm sorry." He glanced somewhere off screen. "I've got to go now Simon." He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just sighed before disconnecting.

As the message ended and the man's face disappeared, Simon felt the tension that had set in his shoulders ease. Sighing he flopped over onto his back and twitched his foot to bring up his music. He browsed through it for a moment before setting it to play a quieter instrumental piece. As the soft melody began to play he stood, stretching as he did so he felt the rest of his muscles uncoil.

Muttering under his breath about the sleep he had lost Simon left the terminal room and headed towards the kitchen intent on getting some breakfast. Pulling a pan from the cupboard and eggs from the fridge, he started cooking, thinking of the different adults who might go with him to K-Castle.

"So, Dad and Mom are definite nos. Peter's parents are also out, along with Mike's dad." Tapping the spatula against the edge of the pain, Simon tried to think of any other adults he knew. "Oh, I know!" A small smile tugged at his mouth and he happily refocused his attention on his eggs. As they finished cooking he scrapped them off onto a plate and put the dirty pan in the sink. Humming with the bit of music he could hear from the terminal room he poured himself a cup of orange juice and dug into his breakfast.

He figured he'd wait a bit to give Kable a call. He'd have an easier time convincing the man if he didn't wake him up.


End file.
